Country A Supplement to the Star Shopper
cres A Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Friday, November 2, 2018 • Edition 16
It’s always happy hour at
Kamp Karibu
Kraemer, Schwieters repurpose wood to build cabin By CAROL MOORMAN Staff Writer PALISADE – A barn on Joe Seifermann’s farm near Spring Hill was torn down with the floor joists, beams and rafters reused to build a barn-like cabin at Kamp Karibu in rural Palisade. The cabin, tucked away in a wooded area on a dead-end road, 138 miles from Melrose, was the brainchild of brothers-in law Mike Kraemer and Mark Schwieters of Melrose. Both used woodworking skills to construct their vision, using repurposed items as much as possible. Their wives, Karla Schwieters and Linda Kraemer, adult children and other family helped with the project, which dates back to 2008. In addition to wood from Seifermann’s barn, the wood flooring from the Orange Room,
upstairs in the former Stan’s Bar (now Woody’s) in Greenwald was refinished and used as flooring in the rustic cabin. Old wood from Mary and Dan Hopfer’s remodeled barn in rural Greenwald was also repurposed in this project. Prior to building the cabin, the families had a cabin near Orr, Minnesota, a five-hour drive from home. They wanted something closer. After looking at different plots of land, they purchased 20 acres near Palisade in 2008, and five years ago, they purchased another 80 acres of bare land nearby, giving them plenty of land to hunt. On the initial 20 acres, there was a trailer house and outbuilding. The first phase of the project was constructing an addition on the trailer house, including a wood-burning fireplace. Gas, electric heat and central air were
This month in the
eventually added. “We planned it so when we wanted to, we could pull the trailer off and leave the addition there and then add on to that,” said Schwieters. After they pulled the trailer off, they used it as sleeping quarters while completing the second phase. Schwieters put an ad in the paper looking for an old barn that needed to come down. Bingo— the Seifermann barn. “When [Joe Seifermann] mentioned tearing a barn down, I said, ‘Are you nuts?’ but the barn, built in the 1960s, was in good shape,” said Kraemer. Schwieters drew up plans for the second phase of the cabin, which started in 2011 and was finished a few years later. Over the winter months, they prebuilt the walls and cabinets in their home shops. Other wood was refurbished for flooring.
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Mike Kraemer (left) and Mark Schwieters of Melrose are pictured in front of their cabin, Kamp Karibu, in rural Palisade. Repurposed wood from Stearns County buildings was used to build the cabin.
They found a way to use wood that may have otherwise been discarded. “Pretty much everything was used,” said Kraemer of the old barn wood. The 24-by 54-foot cabin includes one bedroom, a half bathroom, a game room, kitchen, living room and screened-in porch
on the lower level. The upper level includes two bedrooms and a full bathroom. The family’s building talent is showcased throughout the building. Kraemer constructed what Schwieters calls a “floor
KAMP KARIBU continued on page 2
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